Use neuroscience and psychology to explain why it's so hard to stop drinking.

I'm a biochemist in the Boston area with a BS in Chemistry and a MS in Biology. I utilize my scientific background to understand the research about addiction, so I can explain it to my listeners in a way that anyone can understand regardless of educational level. I focus on why it's so hard for us to stop drinking, how drinking changes the brain to make us want to drink more, and why some of us develop a problem and others don't. My listeners are sober, sober-curious, trying to get sober, or the family member of a person struggling with drinking.
 

I stopped drinking in November 2019 after years of suffering. I knew my drinking was a problem since 2014, but I was convinced I could learn to moderate and drink like normal people do. When I finally embraced sobriety I wanted to understand why this happened to me, am I really a weak-willed loser? So I began doing research on my own, every single day, to learn why I had a problem and why it was so hard for me to stop drinking. One day, after 8 months of sobriety, I woke up and thought, "everyone needs to know this." I already had an inexpensive mic, signed up for Buzzsprout, and zoom called myself because I didn't know any other way of recording. I launched my first episode later that same day.
 

Each episode takes around 10-15 hours to create between doing the research, summarizing the research in an outline, recording, and editing. I release an episode every Friday, but with a full time job, sometimes I don't record until Thursday night! I work on my podcast in the mornings before work, when I get home, and on the weekends. I'm genuinely passionate about the topic and enjoy doing this work.
I initially spent $40 to launch my podcast between Buzzsprout and the microphone. Now that my podcast is successful, I feel more comfortable investing in it. I spend $64 a month between Buzzsprout, Flodesk for emails, Adobe Audition, and various apps like Canva Pro. I also invested in a Shure MV7 as a gift to myself for my 1 year soberversary, highly recommend that mic.
 

I have one podcast sponsor that runs ads on my show. My show was getting 1,000 downloads per episode in the first 30 days and 6.5k downloads per month when this sponsor approached me. Now, I average around 10k downloads per month. I created a media kit and plan to send that to any future sponsors. It's a 3 page PDF that outlines my stats, listener base, and pricing.
Podcasting benefits me because I love helping people. All I want is for people to not have to suffer as deeply as I had to before I got sober. I have received so many nice emails and reviews about how my podcast has helped someone's sobriety, and it's a wonderful feeling to know that I can have such an important impact on another person's journey. The topics that I research also benefit me because I want to learn this information.
 

I prepare my episodes by deciding on a topic that I'm passionate about or that I've seen discussed in the community recently. I create a Google doc and just unload all of my thoughts in there. Each time I find a paper or article that I like, I add the link to my doc. After I've compiled all the information I go back through and create a cohesive outline.
I record and edit in Adobe Audition, and use a Shure MV7 mic. I don't outsource anything and feel proud that I know how to do each step of the process. I have only have a couple guests on my show, but I select guests that I believe will help my audience. I'd appreciate them promoting the episode, but that's not my purpose. For example, I had a guest on to discuss her experience going to AA for years and sponsoring others because I have never been to AA. I also had my husband come on the pod to talk about my drinking because I wanted my listeners to hear the perspective of a normal drinker and how they think/feel about alcohol, plus I know they need to have similar hard conversations with the people close to them.
I interview on zoom, but I'm considering Riverside.fm or Squadcast. The reviews are mixed so I'm holding off for now.
 

I've had a lot of success on Instagram. I started a new account the day I launched my podcast and have built it up to almost 6k followers in 9 months of podcasting. I don't post "new episode is up" type of posts, I post content that will benefit my followers whether they listen to the pod or not. Because of this, I gain more exposure for my pod and I'm slowly converting followers into listeners. I also use Flodesk for email marketing, and highly recommend them. I had no idea how to do anything when I started out and Flodesk is very intuitive. 58% of my listeners use Apple and 17% use Spotify.
 

My advice for newbies,
1. Stop trying to monetize when you have a very small listener base. I see so many small podcasts trying to constantly push coaching, masterclasses, or courses. Overtime, you teach people that your podcast and social media are just sales pitches and they will never give you a chance. Let your audience build trust with you and see why your information is valuable before you try to monetize.
2. Your podcast name and logo are someone's first impression to your show. If you have a boring logo and a random podcast name, neither of which tells me what your show is actually about, then I'm going to scroll by and find a different show. You only have a few seconds to get some curious enough to give you a shot. My podcast is called Sober Powered, so it's clearly about sobriety and addiction. My logo is me holding a blue brain. It looks cool and makes people wonder what my show has to do with the brain. That helps them give my show a chance. If I called my show The Gill Show and my logo was a plain white background with a picture of a podcast mic, you'd have no clue what that was about and wouldn't waste your time. Really optimize your name and logo.
Pat Flynn is the best resource ever. His YouTube channel and Smart Passive Income Podcast are so helpful. He gives a lot of information away for free.
 

Website https://www.soberpowered.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sober.powered
Email gill@soberpowered.com